Black Country superstore that helps to reduce waste celebrates first birthday
A superstore that sells goods from big name retailers that would have gone to waste has celebrated its first birthday.
Company Shop's Dudley superstore has redistributed more than 1750 tons of surplus food and household products.
The store operates on a membership basis, which is completely free and available to certain groups.
Employees and pension recipients of the NHS, emergency services, social care, FMCG supply chain, British Armed Forces, prison services, registered charities (including volunteers), as well as those in receipt of means-tested benefits can all register with the store.
It is estimated shoppers have collectively saved millions by shopping in the store on Birmingham New Road.
Colleagues and members came together in-store to celebrate these achievements at a free fun day with cakes, games, and surplus prizes.
The Children’s Air Ambulance’s superhero mascot, Blade, was also in attendance to pose for photographs with families while tins were on all the till to collect for the charity.
Kevin Duffy store manager, said: "I’m humbled that in just 12 short months we’ve managed to make such a difference to so many families here in Dudley and beyond, and I want to say a big thank you to all the colleagues whose hard work have made this achievement possible.
"This fun day is our way of showing our gratitude to our members, who’ve helped us to save an unbelievable amount of perfectly good food and other household products from needlessly going to waste."
The stores products come from big name retailers like M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, but sell for around 50 per cent less than their recommended retail price.
Kevin added: "There are different reasons behind how we obtain our stock in the first place.
"These can be wonky labelling, foreign labelling, short dates, overproduction, season lines, things like that.
"But everything we sell is safe to consume and use and if we didn’t sell it it would become landfill, socially we think we are doing the right thing.
"We are trying to help people, if you fall under the criteria, we encourage you to apply online or come into the store and collect the card."
